Psychopathology in first-episode schizophrenia and antibodies to Toxoplasma gondii.

OBJECTIVE

Environmental factors such as infectious agents may contribute to the psychopathology and aetiology of schizophrenia. Toxoplasma gondii (TG) is a candidate infectious agent as it is known to replicate within the human central nervous system and to alter behaviour in experimental animals.

METHOD: The relationship between antibodies to TG and psychopathological symptoms was examined in 34 first-episode patients with schizophrenia.

RESULTS

Results of regression analyses revealed that symptoms on admission, predictors of outcome, age and family history of psychiatric disease influenced the levels of antibodies to TG.

CONCLUSIONS

These results indicate that TG infections may play a role in the clinical manifestation of psychopathology in a subgroup of patients with schizophrenia.